by Karolyn Hart    

In the last two weeks I have found myself sharing my thoughts on God’s love - and specifically on his command to “Love Your Enemies.”  In both cases, the people told me they’d never heard it explained the way I do.  To be honest, I am hesitant to put these thoughts into writing because I HATE being judged and the premise behind them is quite radical.

Yet they aren’t my original thoughts - they belong to a man that did radical things.  Since it’s Easter and this weekend is all about him I thought I’d write about what I believe to be the single most world altering thought.

Love Your Enemies.

I know, I know - you’ve heard it a hundred times.  We ALL have but over the years I’ve REALLY thought about this one line.  What does it mean to love my enemy and for that matter, if I’m loving this person who the heck is my enemy? You see, the Bible teaches that we are to be willing to lay down our very life for our enemies because that is what Jesus did for us.

To be honest, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t think it’s a good idea. In fact, I would say that MOST people will go on record as saying it’s a nice golden rule that we should all follow.  Unfortunately, it usually ends about there.

The idea of loving your enemy gets much tougher to follow when you ask:

“Who do you hate?” 
For some reason the word enemy doesn’t resonate with people today but the word hate sure does!  The idea of loving someone who is your enemy gets even that much harder when you move to a more detailed question like:

“Who annoys the heck out of you???”
Ugh - that one starts to hit close.  We can ALL think of people who annoy us.  Thinking of the fact that I am supposed to LOVE those people and even being willing to lay my life down for them so they can see love God’s in action - now that can be really tough.

Now I want to make something clear at this point.  When it comes to the command “Love Your Enemies”  I believe that this command is specifically aimed at those who are professing to be Christians - not for those who don’t.  (If you have another religion but believe in this then that is AWESOME). The fact is, that God tells us that we are not to judge those who are not in a relationship with him because basically they don’t know any better but we are to love them.

There it is AGAIN - that love thing. Wow.

It’s important to understand this key difference because what I am about to say is not directed at those who are not Christians although I’m not saying you can’t get in on the love thing - the more the merrier! What I am saying is that if you ARE a person walking around identifying yourself as a Christian then the next questions ARE for you because this “Love Your Enemy” thing isn’t a suggestion - it’s a command!

Who is your enemy?
Are you showing them love?
Would you be willing to lay down your life for them?

At the end of the day, if you believe in Christ then you GET the fact that he laid down his life for you - when you were his enemy!   So I will ask again, who is your enemy?

Let me suggest some common enemies I’ve identified.  There are the serious ones. The hot potatoes for many professing Christians. 

These include (for many) foreign enemies fighting against our soldiers.
If you are a Christian do you speak ill of those people in other countries in war?  Do you talk about blasting them to smitherines?  Do you think they deserve everything they get?  If so, then this is your enemy. Are you willing to pray for them?  To work on ways to help their children? Their families? Despite your political view point?

Moving on, what about the gay community?
Do you consider this group your enemy?  Do you talk about how they are destroying the country?  Are you secretly glad that they can’t have the basic medical care that other humans in your country get?  Are you willing to set aside your hatred enough to help them have some basic human needs met??

Ok - I realize this is hard and heavy. I’m not saying you have to AGREE with people who are your enemies. God didn’t say “Agree with your enemies” - he says to LOVE them.   The good Lord knows that I don’t always agree with my husband or he with me - but we can still love each other!! :-)   and it’s this love that I am really focusing on.

I realize the two groups of people I just talked about are huge hot potatoes and for many people not even a part of their daily life so let’s bring it down to reality. 

Who are your daily enemies?

Come on now, really think about it. We ALL have them in our lives.   The guy who cut you off in traffic, the colleague who takes credit for the work you’ve done, the child who is out of control, the friend who breaks their promises, the family member that is inconsiderate, or the  annoying neighbour who doesn’t return what they borrow (errr. Wait that’s me! Yikes!)

For many people, their number one enemy isn’t a foreign soldier, or even someone living an alternate lifestyle - for many they are married to their enemy.  That’s a huge problem. Again, I’m talking to those of you who “claim” to be Christians. 

If you are supposed to love your enemies to the point of being willing to lay down your very life - then why is it that you can’t just lay down the butter knife and apologize???

For some poor souls their worst enemy - of all time - is looking at them every morning in the mirror.  Of all the enemies in the world, it is this one, not all the others I’ve discussed that I think breaks my heart. If you believe in Christ then there must come a point where you must also open your heart and heal so that you can love others.

At the end of the day, it just comes down to LOVE.

As we celebrate Easter I am so grateful for the teachings of Christ.  Far from placing me into a box, I have found his premises absolutely liberating.  You see, when you are free to just LOVE people you can meet them where they are at and just enjoy them. Jesus did this while he was on earth. He hung with the people that everyone in “good” society hated that included tax collectors and prostitutes who back in his day were the worst of the worst.  What is amazing to me is that it doesn’t say he was preaching at them, or spending time convincing them of how bad they were.  It says he was lounging and having dinner - something we do with people we care about. He was basically just hanging out with them. It was THIS action that got the church so angry.

Probably because the premise of REALLY loving people who are different from ourselves is revolutionary.

Just for the record, at the end of the day I really do try to follow Christ’s example and I am no where near perfect.  I know there will be people who read this and will “get it” and people who will read it and get REALLY angry what I am saying.

And so I will ask” Who is your enemy?”  If it IS me, then perhaps I can be your first opportunity to show love - instead of the hatred we’ve all become so accustomed to giving out!

Anyone with me?

Filed under: Author Karolyn, Life